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[00:00:17] The Missional Life - Dan: All right. Welcome back to Mission Live podcast. Today we have JD King on the show. JD is a pastor, author, and passionate revivalist who has spent decades studying and experiencing moves of God. He was deeply involved in the Smithton outpouring, has written extensively on healing and revival, and currently pastors at Revive Church in Kansas City.

[00:00:37] The Missional Life - Dan: His latest book, mighty Like Gideon, dies into the story of Gideon and what it teaches us about spiritual, renewal, courage, and stepping into our God-given calling. Jd, welcome to the show. Welcome.

[00:00:47] JD King: Thank you guys so much for having me. I'm, I'm glad to be here.

[00:00:51] The Missional Life - Dan: Yeah. Glad to have you. Absolutely. Hey, before we dive in, take us back to those early years you grew up in a revivalist home.

[00:00:57] The Missional Life - Dan: How did that shape Yeah, your faith and your calling?

[00:01:01] JD King: Well, I think we're all a product of our environments and, you know, the things that our grandparents and others, I think we, we have to keep that in mind. And, you know, there's sometimes some things I don't like about it, but there's some wonderful things.

[00:01:11] JD King: You know, my grandfather was a. An early Pentecostal preacher and he'd been involved with the, the healing revivals of the forties and fifties. And so I grew up hearing these stories and like some of these things you're hearing about like, is this even real? You know, did God really do these awesome things?

[00:01:25] JD King: Did did people really get touched this way? You know, so I heard these stories and I don't know, they were bigger than me at the time, but you know, they put in me a hunger, you know, and a desire. And it's like I always knew, okay, maybe God could do these great big awesome things and. I, I didn't see it a lot as a kid.

[00:01:42] JD King: I saw maybe little, little pieces of it, but like, you know, later on I did get to see it. But I think that hunger was put in me through those experiences and those storytellings and all that.

[00:01:52] The Missional Life - Dan: What was your experience with the Smithton revival.

[00:01:54] JD King: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:01:55] JD King: I mean, obviously. Okay. You, that's such an incredible story. Like sometimes just talking about that is like, you know, you could do it, you could spend easily of the whole podcast just saying. This, this, this cool experience, but lemme just try to briefly encapsulate it here. Okay? That revival broke open in the late, in the mid to late nineties in a town of 532 people.

[00:02:13] JD King: Okay? This is this little bitty cornfield town. I mean, literally like, no, no gas station, no restaurant, nothing, you know, and, and there's this church of about 150 people. And, and then this is revival broke open and, and now these people are coming from like all over. There's people in line and from South Korea and Germany and Latin America, you know, and they would line up sometimes like three in the afternoon to get into the meetings that night.

[00:02:38] JD King: And so, you know, I got to be a part of that revival. I got to be a leader in it later on. And, you know, and I could just, you know, just these stories. I mean, the other, the, you know all these people in the room and you can barely move and just such hunger and passion and you're seeing these lives being changed and you're seeing people on the verge of divorce just fall in love again and just these crazy cool stories of Jesus just absolutely touching lives and.

[00:03:02] JD King: You know, and like, I, like I was alluding to, you know, my grandfather was telling me these stories about revivals and a kid, and like, and I, I, I couldn't imagine what they were, but I remember I'm finally in these meeting meetings and seeing this stuff. I'm like, oh, that's what my grandpa was talking about.

[00:03:15] JD King: Like, like, like, this is really it. This is like the thing I was reading about, or the thing I'd been longing for, or whatever. And I, I gotta tell you, I mean, like, you know, I, I know that, you know, revivals are unique and special and obviously it has to be God himself. I. It brings that, but when you get in one of those like that and spend any time and it kinda ruins you for life, I mean like, like, you know, just regular, average church is not maybe enough always.

[00:03:40] JD King: I mean like, you know, I love everything the Lord does and all the ways he gets involved with people's lives. I love all the works of, of, of Jesus and the church. They'd all have to be these big. Wow. You know, explosive things. But I gotta say I kind of got ruined being in those, those meetings and just seeing the people, you know, like people coming and crying out to God and, you know, rush into the altar and then like scraping their nose on the carpet.

[00:04:05] JD King: 'cause they like fly down on, you know, face first toward the ground and there's like, their nose is bleeding now and they don't even care 'cause they're just crying out to Jesus. So there's like blood and tears. I mean, it probably sounds brutal here, but you're watching this stuff, it's like, wow. Like. How does that happen?

[00:04:19] JD King: You know what, what, what? I mean somebody can't manufacture that. This, you know, this is real, real Ima you know, passion and heart and life change and devotion and all this stuff is so incredible. I.

[00:04:31] The Missional Life - Dan: Wow. Wow. What surprised me too was this, this thing went on for like three years, didn't it? And there's something Yeah, yeah.

[00:04:38] The Missional Life - Dan: 250,000 people ish. Yeah. Give or take in a town of 500.

[00:04:43] JD King: Yeah, yeah. Core of a million people pop, you know, passed through this town, you know, and I mean, it went from like you know, all the way to really 2000 and really, you know, it's kinda like when there's some fires that have been lit. Those fires kind of keep, I mean, they may not be burning as bright and big as they once were, but there's something about when you get touched really by God, you carry something of that with you maybe the rest of your life.

[00:05:04] JD King: I think, I mean, you know, I'll tell you a story here real just briefly. I, I, in two, 2009, I got a chance to go to the Scottish Hebert Islands and you know, your, your listeners all may not know this, but there was this revival that broke open there in 1949. This is these little islands kind of just on the edge of Scotland and.

[00:05:21] JD King: And man, it's such an incredible, so a friend of mine had been there before and he wanted to bring me. And so I'm going here and I'm getting to be in the homes of some of these elderly people who had been in this revival. And I was delighted. I got to be in the home of a man named Donald John Smith.

[00:05:34] JD King: And his father was a key leader in the revival blacksmith, and he was a teenager in it. But man, this guy carried that fire and he would pray and we had these prayer meetings with him and he's we're sitting there in his house drinking tea, and he's telling stories and he says this, I'll never forget this.

[00:05:49] JD King: He says, I. I see if I can imitate my Scottish bro here for a minute. If I am he a broken plan, I know that revival will come again to the hees over here. This like, wow. But like, here's this, this guy, I don't know that he'd been in a powerful meeting in decades, but man, there's this light in his eyes, this passion, and here he is.

[00:06:12] JD King: He's, he's saying, I'm dreaming of a day where the young men and women in my. And my village in, in my area would pray again like we did, you know, decades before. And if I, there's a sound like you talked about, there's a sound, if I ever hear the sound of broken prayer, I mean, I don't know, you know, if you guys have ever experienced it, but there's a sound of people when they're really worshiping or really pressing into God.

[00:06:32] JD King: There's a, there's a rumble, there's a, and I, and I love, I I love that sound. I've heard that sound different times. And and I, you know, I could, I could talk in great links about that sound, but I love that. But this, this old man, Donald John Smith was telling me that he's yearning for that. And, and, and I, I guess my point, I'm trying to say, what brings me to that is that like, you know, maybe something only lasts for a few years, but there's, there's pieces of that if you really continue to walk with God that carry parts of that with you forever.

[00:07:00] JD King: And I think, I mean, I don't wanna sit here and act like, man, I'm this powerful revivalist walking and, you know, all these different things per se. But there's something of that that has. Shape my life and it's, you know, as long as I walk with the Lord, that's never gonna go away. I really believe that. You know, and I, I want that.

[00:07:18] The Missional Life - Dan: Wow. Marked by a powerful move of God and powerful, just using, using somebody powerfully. And I think that's what your new book about Gideon is like, God using a man powerfully? So, right. Besides God using him powerfully, what else drew you to. The story to write a book

[00:07:37] The Missional Life - Dan: about Gideon.

[00:07:38] JD King: Well first of all, you know, I, I should mention, you know, I, I co-wrote this book with the, with the leader who, who was the leader of the Smith and Outpouring. He's my spiritual father, you know, great, great man of God, and he's the one that God moved through in some powerful ways to help spark that thing.

[00:07:54] JD King: And, you know, just, just an incredible man and. He did a, he did a famous sermon in the revival. It was called The River Test, and it was from the story of Gideon. And basically the gist of the sermon was, here all these men are, they're gathered at the edge of the river. And are they really gonna thirst?

[00:08:09] JD King: Are they really gonna have a hunger for God? You know, how are they gonna respond to the need? And, and like the funny thing is like, you know, the river of God. That metaphor is not just about refreshing, although it it does refresh. It's also for sifting and position positioning you for battle. So it's like a test.

[00:08:28] JD King: What are you gonna do? How are you gonna drink? I. Who are you gonna be? So anyway, I remember this was a really famous sermon he preached in this revival, the river test, you know, who, what's your response to the river? And some people were talking to us about doing a revival. I, I'm sorry. Doing a book and telling, telling our stories.

[00:08:45] JD King: And, you know, it's kinda like, you know, I'm, I'm Gen X, he's, he's boomer generation, two different generations. You know, we, we saw these cool things. We have some, maybe Bible principles we wanna talk about, like, and somebody was talking to us about it and I kinda remembered some things and this, this sermon kind of popped back in my head and I thought, you know, we could take.

[00:09:03] JD King: Some of the episodes of Gideon's Life and use them as launching pads to talk about some of the ways God wants to work in people's lives. And, and I, and I remembered a story back in there was one time these seminary students came to Smithton. And this one guy, his name Jim, you know, he came and, and you know, these guys kind of came out and, and I'm talking to him during the meetings and, and he said he goes, you know, I've heard that this is the river here.

[00:09:27] JD King: And he's kinda looking at me a little funny and he is like, hers is rivers, I guess. We came out to watch people drink. That's what he said. And it's like, well, he, you know, he wasn't really wanting to drink himself. He just wanted to come out and gaw at other people drinking. And so I kinda remember that story and that experience and I thought, you know what, this is kind of a interesting metaphor.

[00:09:45] JD King: Yeah. Here we are at the edge of the river. All of us, you know, are we gonna just watch? Are we gonna sit on our hands? Are we gonna, are we really gonna go all in on this? Are we gonna really drink? From the river of God, you know, what's, what's it gonna be? And so anyway, I thought that this was a useful way.

[00:10:01] JD King: And so we kind of carved up, you know, several episodes from Gideon's Life to talk about some of the ways God works in our lives. So I, you know, I, I, I think it's worked decently, I mean, and kind of keeps two authors kind of on the same page, you know, drawing from these stories and, you know, and it kind of unifies the book a bit that, that, that's, that's the the basis of, of the book, if it makes any sense there.

[00:10:24] The Missional Life - Dan: Absolutely. You know, you touched on this just briefly, but I'd love to hear more from you. You write what you thirst for determines your destiny. Right? And it's a, a bit like the guy who showed up. You know, some people wanna drink and they want to go as deep as they can.

[00:10:38] The Missional Life - Dan: They wanna get it in the water, they wanna

[00:10:40] The Missional Life - Dan: Get as wet and, as full as they can. And then there's other people just wanna show up and watch, I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on that as you were writing that in the book. Yeah,

[00:10:48] JD King: well thanks for that question. I think that's the fundamental question of the book.

[00:10:51] JD King: I mean, the book deals with a lot of things, but that's the question we're coming back to. And I mean, here's the thing. Okay. You know, the river of, of, of, of God, you know what you know, and that has brought. Amount of, you know, things it could be. But you know, fundamentally it's about us walking and his goodness, his grace, his life, the refreshing, you know, strength that he brings for us to help us with our life, our marriage, our ministry to be, do, and go and, you know, and it's like, you know.

[00:11:16] JD King: You know, how much do you desire for that? How much do you yearn for that? And you know, how much do you want to go all in? I mean, you know, the Bible says, you know, seek first the kingdom of God. I mean, last time I checked, first means first. You know, and it's not like, well, you know, just give the Lord a little time here and there, you know, once a week or, you know, I, I, there's people I know that like, go to church once a month and they consume themselves, you know, very devout, you know, they go, you know.

[00:11:40] JD King: Four, you know, out of, out of, out of a whole month. They go one time. And I mean, you know, again, I'm not trying to get into performance or behavioralism or scorecards or all the rest of it here, but like, you know, come on. I mean, if you really like something, if you're passionate about something, I. You know, like somebody, you know, you, you don't have to be motivated to go, you know what, I want to show up.

[00:11:58] JD King: I wanna participate in this. I wanna put some energy into this. I wanna, and, and I don't know, I mean, just sometimes I feel like, you know, we don't maybe do that enough with God. We, and I get it. Religion can be, you know, distressing and, and not life giving. And I get that sometimes sermons and worship and stuff may not be hitting the spot.

[00:12:18] JD King: I get that there's a, there's hundreds of reasons why maybe we could back off. But what would it mean for us to not back off and, you know, could, what would happen if somebody got thirsty? I mean, you know, the, the, the whole, the story of Gideon is in part about, you know, these Midianites. They come in and like, you know, they, they're burning down their crops and they're taking their animals and they're, they're doing all that.

[00:12:40] JD King: And the people are obviously been living under duress. They've been living under the thumb of all these awful things. And they want things to change. And, I mean, I don't know. Somebody listen to this and they go, Hey, you know what? My life may not, may not be going the way I hoped it would. My marriage is maybe struggling or, or I don't, you know, I don't know.

[00:12:55] JD King: I don't know what somebody's need is. It could be any of those things. And it's like, you know what, Hey, I think I need things to change. And the thing is, you know. We want things to change, but how bad do we want them to change? Mm-hmm. And, and part of the problem that Gideon was dealing with is they hated the Midianites, but right there in his father's own backyard, he had an Asher, a pole analar to Baal, which is the same Gods as the Midianites.

[00:13:18] JD King: Mm-hmm. So in Israel, they were worshiping the same gods as the Midianites, praying that somehow God would deliver them from the Midianites. And that's a real problem, as you could probably imagine, Dan and Amanda, I mean. Mm-hmm. You know, that, that, that. I mean, here we are. I mean, we do wanna be free. We want help.

[00:13:33] JD King: We want our finances to do better. We wanna have more hope. But if we're worshiping the same gods or we have the same values as the wretched things we want removed from our lives, that's a real problem. So fundamentally, how thirsty are you? How much do you really want to long after God, long after his ways and.

[00:13:52] JD King: And you know, I don't know. I mean if, if somebody asked me what I would think is different today from maybe what I saw in the nineties when I was talking about that revival in Smithton, one of the things I could tell you is very different today is I don't see the hunger that I used to see just a few decades ago.

[00:14:09] JD King: I don't see that, that that thing like, you know, I've really gotta get this and, and you know, and I don't know sometimes, I mean, there's some people I've met that think because they supposedly won the election the way they wanted to, that now we can just relax and enjoy things. But that's really a dangerous position to be in.

[00:14:24] JD King: I mean, we all need to get hungry for God. And I mean, politics is not our answer and all these other things is not our answer. It has to be Jesus, his goodness, his life. And the question is, how hungrier for are, are we for him, for his ways, for his beauty, for his face, for all the, and, and you know, this is the fundamental thing.

[00:14:45] JD King: And you know, those that hunger and thirsty after righteousness will be filled. The scriptures say, you know, and I don't know, I mean, you know, this book is a little bit about that. I mean, we hope that, you know, in the book I'm talking a little bit about history, a little bit about, you know, the Bible drawn from the Gideon story.

[00:14:58] JD King: And the ultimate goal of this book is I want people to get hungry for Jesus. That, you know, that they would call on him, that they would open their hearts up and they would really believe something magnificent could happen. That's kind of the, the goal of this.

[00:15:11] The Missional Life - Amanda: Yeah. That's so good. , you mentioned it's not quite the same today as it was, , back in the eighties, nineties, .

[00:15:19] The Missional Life - Amanda: What was it like back then and , how do we as a church, , globally, individually, get back to that place of hunger corporately and individually? , what would be your thoughts on that?

[00:15:32] JD King: What a great question, Amanda. You know, and, and I'm by no means the expert on how to perfectly stir hunger in, in people.

[00:15:39] JD King: I think, I don't know. I mean, you know, I, you know, I was obviously a lot younger when these things kind of broke open. You know, I was in, you know, in my teens and early twenties through some of this I. You know, I didn't live through all the seventies and eighties and maybe some of the dead, dead periods that were preceding what were ha was happening in the mid to late nineties.

[00:15:57] JD King: And, but I, I've talked with people since that time that, that, that did live through that. And they talked about, you know, how, how dry everything had gotten and how, you know, the church had gotten so bloated and kind of self-absorbed, but we really got away from prayer and the things that really matter.

[00:16:11] JD King: And so, I don't know, maybe, you know, maybe it was, you know, some decades of some dryness and people just said, man, I've gotta have. This fresh touch from God, I gotta have something more happen. I, I'm just being honest with you. You know, at that time period, everywhere I would go, people would be hungry. You know, people would drive great distances to go to these meetings.

[00:16:30] JD King: People would would, you know, they would download and they'd buy books. They would, they would fly around the world. They would do all these things. You saw the hunger and, you know, some people ridiculed it, but I, I think it's wonderful. I mean. People would line up, you know, they'd go, go down to Brownsville Revival in Florida and they'd wait in line for, you know, all day just to get into an evening meeting.

[00:16:48] JD King: And, and again, people would ridicule that. But I think it was marvelous. And I, I'm just, I don't, I don't know how to explain it. I don't see that hunger. I don't see. I mean, somebody might say, well, they don't really have any place to put that hunger. That's probably a measure of truth to that. Like there's not the places, there's not the moments.

[00:17:07] JD King: I, I get that. That's a fair criticism, but there ought to be some hunger in us anyway. I mean like, Lord, we need you to come, we want you to show up. We want you to. To show your nature, your character. We want, we want our kids to be disrupted where it's not just religion and rules and behavioralism, but it's this beauty and power and this life-giving thing that would cause us to give everything for the gospel, you know?

[00:17:30] JD King: And I, I believe it's coming. I mean, I did see some hints of that, you know, in the Asbury revival broke up a couple years ago and some people were going to Kentucky and getting in line for that, which I thought was fantastic. I mean, any sign of hunger and passion and prayer, I mean. But again, I think sometimes we we're looking at the wrong things.

[00:17:49] JD King: The church has got too entangled in politics. It's gotten too entangled and a lot of other things we're, we're looking for solutions in the wrong places. The people in the nineties and and whatever, were not a holier people. They were not a better behaved people. They were just maybe in some cases, a little more of a hungry people.

[00:18:06] JD King: It's not about us having, you know, being perfect or having it all put together or have all the wisdom or knowledge. It's really, I think the greatest thing we could do is, is start thirsting after the Lord and really drinking or trying to drink from the living waters. And I think that would solve so many of our problems.

[00:18:23] The Missional Life - Dan: Mm. Just was thinking about how they were hungry and when you think about today and how you were just saying that they were hungrier, they wanted a little more of the presence of God. I think so many times our lives are full of so much to the point of Gideon, right?

[00:18:38] The Missional Life - Dan: God calls Gideon, he sees him in , the wine for us. He's, , he's doing his own thing. And then, God , gives him the plan. Like, look, , I wanna rescue my people, right? And so again, he's like, all right, cool. , , that sounds good.

[00:18:48] The Missional Life - Dan: But then God's like, Hey, wait a second. Before we do that though, you gotta get rid of some stuff.

[00:18:52] JD King: Right, right. And well, and I think

[00:18:53] The Missional Life - Dan: that's, I think that's just how our lives are too. I think in order for God to accomplish , the things that he wants to do in our lives, we have to get rid of some things.

[00:19:02] The Missional Life - Dan: Our lives are so full right now, and so God truly wants to use us , in Gideon like ways. Yeah. But Gideon had to get rid of some of these gods , in his backyard to, to your point. And it brought a lot of criticism. He did what God told him to do, but the people were like, Hey, , you got rid of this thing.

[00:19:17] The Missional Life - Dan: And they were angry with them. Yeah. Right. And I think we, we have that cancel culture. We have, we have the fear of man in our culture and it's gonna take us stepping up and being hungry for God, and doing what he says and not worrying about their repercussions socially. Hmm.

[00:19:31] JD King: Yeah, , I couldn't agree with you more, Dan.

[00:19:32] JD King: I mean, you're, you're, you're right. I mean, Gideon is a good example. I think one of the things I like about Gideon, I mean, your, your point is exactly right. You know, Gideon had to deal with some things before he could really ultimately fight the Midianites. I mean, for one thing, he had to deal with his identity.

[00:19:44] JD King: I mean, mm-hmm. You know, God says, Hey, mighty warrior, and he is like, say what? You know, I'm not a mighty warrior, I'm weak. I'm, I'm, I don't have it all put together. And God said, well, I'm calling you. This is what I'm saying about you. Are you gonna rise in who I saying you are? Are you gonna, you gonna just back off?

[00:19:59] JD King: You know? And so, so, so he had to deal with that a little bit. You know, he is a little bit insecure about that. And, but that, that was a little bit of an easier battle. I mean, I think a lot of us are dealing with. Identity issues. We have to really wrestle the fact of my son or a daughter of the most high God.

[00:20:13] JD King: Have I really got, you know, that, that, am I, am I truly, you know, experiencing sonship, truly embracing the fullness of who Jesus is? And, you know, if, if a listener hasn't done that, today's your day. Do it man. And embrace that Jesus is the one who can break open the way for you to truly know the Father, to be in the family.

[00:20:30] JD King: But obviously the identity side wasn't the only thing it, you know, he had to deal with his father's. False religion. I mean, as we were already talking about, you know, here it was his father's grove that had the Asher Pole and the the, the, the, you know, the altar to, to Baal, you know, and these are like these pagan fertility gods of really the Midianites.

[00:20:50] JD King: Mm-hmm. So God tells him, I want you to uproot and tear down this pagan altars. I want you to. Writ it in Israel, and I want you to actually build a proper altar to the Lord. And you know, like, like God doesn't just wanna remove things from our life. He wants to actually build something useful and powerful and, and, and, and under his glory.

[00:21:08] JD King: And so, so, you know, Gideon's asked to do that. And I love how it says in the text it says that Gideon did it under, under Knight. You know, like he, he did it in the darkness. Like, like he didn't wanna do it in broad daylight 'cause it would, you know, be a, a difficult situation, but. But like sometimes we gotta do it scared, right?

[00:21:23] JD King: We gotta do it with some nervousness. And that thing you're saying about, you know, cancel culture or people cri, sometimes people may very well criticize you for doing the right thing, but you should do the right thing anyway. 'cause under the glory of God and ultimately you will be vindicated. I truly believe that.

[00:21:38] JD King: I could say it to anybody in here. If you try to do the right thing with enough time, you will be vindicated. God will back you up. But you know, but he had to win the internal battle and the battle of his daddy's religion, dead religion. Long before he could actually battle and defeat the Midianites. And so he didn't become a, a, a warrior overnight.

[00:21:56] JD King: It was like he, he was having to, to rise and, and step into his destiny a little by little. And truth be told, I do believe everybody that that's watching this and listening right now is probably called to do great things. But you're probably not gonna step into your greatness overnight. You gotta step a little.

[00:22:13] JD King: God will change. You, step a little more, God will change you. That we become a hero in stages. In time, and it's our obedience and our faithfulness to him that actually opens the door for us to discover our destiny.

[00:22:26] Yeah,

[00:22:27] The Missional Life - Dan: so interesting that you brought that up, how he's doing all these things, but he is doing it at night because , , let's be honest, he's a little fearful, right?

[00:22:33] The Missional Life - Dan: And so let's hang there for a little bit. Fear and doubt are major. Themes in Gideon's story speak to Yeah. , speak to, to listeners that are, struggling with fear and doubt today, how can we work through that in our own lives?

[00:22:47] JD King: Well, it's human to have a measure of fear and doubt. I mean, it doesn't mean you're awful person, it doesn't mean that you. You have no faith in God. I mean, you know, you, you may look at the conditions you're in, you may look at the obstacles or the problems. I mean, let's be honest. I mean, they had been under the thumb of the Midianites, Gideon for seven years, you know, and they'd taken all their food and it wasn't going well for them.

[00:23:09] JD King: So the idea of, you know, him defeating the Midianites. It probably didn't seem like a very realistic thing. I mean, it's like, how, how could I defeat them? We don't even have any weapons or anything. I don't even know how to fight anybody. I barely know how to, you know, harvest a little weed here, you know, like, but the thing is, is okay, I do, I do think sometimes we can be insecure.

[00:23:28] JD King: Sometimes we could feel like we don't know, or, or, or, you know, maybe things don't, you know, I think we want God to like, show us how everything's gonna go. And give us this overwhelming sense that everything's just gonna be perfect. Like I don't think God normally does that to very many of us. It's like God's gonna tell you what the next step is.

[00:23:46] JD King: He is gonna give you some help with that. It's like he's not gonna tell you all the steps. He's not gonna tell you all the ways you're gonna get to this place. What he says is just do the next thing. Yeah, just take the next step, you know, to, to move forward in the, in the, in the strength you have. You know, you know, the, the angel tells, tells Gideon, go in.

[00:24:03] JD King: The strength you have not, like, don't get some strength from somewhere else. Like, okay, maybe you don't have much strength, but go in the strength you have like. Like, like do something now. And like, you know, if you read history, most great people have done great things. They did it with anxiety, they did it with nervousness.

[00:24:18] JD King: They did it. They did it afraid. I mean, like courage is not the saying. You have no uncertainty or anxiety. It says, courage says you're gonna do it in spite of that. And I don't know, I mean, I think that that's a problem in the, in this current generation, like we almost feel like if I don't feel really strong or secure that I can't do this.

[00:24:36] JD King: But like, no, do it. With insecurity, do it with maybe not complete knowledge. Do it with, just do it shaking. Do it under the cover of darkness. I mean, I mean, should he have tore down the altar in broad daylight? Probably. I mean, the scripture kind of like ludes, like that was kind of like what are you doing, Gideon?

[00:24:54] JD King: You're gonna do it at night? Like, what, what's wrong with you? But he still did it. I mean, and I think ultimately God, God's not like. You know, I don't know, beating us up or like, oh, you didn't do it all. Like, like just, just do it. Do it the best you can. Do it the way you know to do it. Get up, go have the conversation.

[00:25:12] JD King: Invest in the person. Go to the school. Do whatever you know, do the thing God's telling you to do. And maybe it's a little sloppy, maybe it's inexact, but somewhere along the way, God's gonna put some courage in you and you're gonna get stronger and you're gonna get more wisdom and that faith's gonna rise and you're gonna become a world changer.

[00:25:29] JD King: But rarely does that happen overnight. And it's gonna have to happen as we respond to God and his wisdom and his ways obedience is what unleashes our destiny. So if you're never willing to obey, you're never gonna discover your destiny.

[00:25:41] Yeah,

[00:25:42] The Missional Life - Amanda: I've been really pondering myself lately and just reading scripture is just talking about putting God first and love the Lord of your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and.

[00:25:55] The Missional Life - Amanda: It's like, I got this picture just recently in the last week. Mm-hmm. That modern day idols and, and I'm myself too, I've struggled with this, is putting opinions of man, like almost creating my own polls. I. And culture does that so easily with creating these polls with, you know, five star reviews. You know, how many likes do you have, how many followers do you have?

[00:26:18] The Missional Life - Amanda: Because followers has turned into a modern day currency as well, right? Which can make people feel secure.

[00:26:25] Mm-hmm.

[00:26:25] The Missional Life - Amanda: Falsely secure. So right. Knocking down those idols completely and saying, Lord, what is your opinion? And of course, like it doesn't mean you just forego any wise counsel of pastors or leaders, right, that are biblically sound and have good insights, but it's truly just muting the chatter and saying, God, what are you saying through your word?

[00:26:48] The Missional Life - Amanda: What are you saying to me right now to be obedient to you?

[00:26:53] JD King: Yeah. That's so good, Amanda. I mean I'm with you a hundred percent and we have all these different idols of different things. I mean, it happens in church too. I mean, you know, we start fighting for a certain kind of expression or tone or Bible translation or style of music or whatever it might be.

[00:27:09] JD King: I mean, you know, whether it be you fight for an old version or you fight for a really new version, I mean, but it's kind of the same arguments. And you know, idolatry can look like a lot of things. I mean, I remember, you know, in the Bible, Jesus talking to the woman at the well and she says. You worship, you know, our, our people worship on this mountain and you worship on the other mountain.

[00:27:26] JD King: And so she wants to get into argument about mountains and buckets and containers, and, and that's what we do. And, and that can turn into a form of idolatry, you know, this is my tribe or my banner or my thing. And, you know, and and, and I mean, it could be a problem. I mean, imagine, I mean, in the story of Gideon, I talk about this in one of the last chapters.

[00:27:43] JD King: You know, Gideon. You know, God enables Gideon to win and he, and he gets like all this gold from the, the enemies they defeated and they form like this priestly eod, this gold eod. And God didn't really tell him to do that, but he kind of did that. And then like it says, this Gideon gets like older or whatever, they like start worshiping this, this, this golden garment at Israel.

[00:28:07] JD King: You know, like something that maybe started off. Is something good or maybe a good intention kind of got twisted. And it actually, the, the scripture says that Israel prostituted itself. What a what? A what a stark language, you know, here, and I mean, and we do this, we do these so many different ways and we, and we get pulled in the wrong direction and we get, you know, caught up in maybe the things that we shouldn't and we get caught up in likes or how important, I mean, I mean, it's tough as an author like, you know, am am I, why am I writing this book?

[00:28:35] JD King: You know, am I writing this book to. To, you know, to say I'm important or, you know, you know, like, I mean, I think there could be some really wrong reasons why people write or create content or, you know, are you trying to, you know, meet some need that, you know, your mom and dad didn't give you enough attention, so now you wanna get attention from everybody else.

[00:28:54] JD King: I mean, there's a lot of really, I, I think wrong reasons why people create content or they write things or they, or they get involved with church. I mean, there's some people going to church and they're looking for. Like, I mean, it sounds awful, but there are people that show up at church and like, you know, I wasn't accepted in this other area, so I'm gonna go over here, but I'm gonna try to gain prominence.

[00:29:12] JD King: I'm gonna gain a status here in church as a, I'm gonna be an elder or a prayer warrior, or whatever is important thing in that circle. They're, they're gunning for that positioning. And so it's, it's just another form of the same way we compete and try to get our own prominence and. And, you know, and I mean, it can be a very not a good thing, you know?

[00:29:33] JD King: And and Gideon had some problems with that, and I think others do too. But, you know, we gotta get back to what does it mean to obey God, to, to really hunger after him, to love people, to serve, to, to fall on our faces, to get back to what really matters and.

[00:29:47] I mean, come

[00:29:47] JD King: on. I mean, you know, we talk about how many followers you have, how many of those followers actually literally are paying attention to everything you're doing, or, I mean, I laugh, you know, I got followers.

[00:29:55] JD King: Like I put out a book like, Hey, surely some of you guys could buy this book. Right? You know, like, like, you know, the, the number of followers I have does not translate to book sales. I can assure you that. You know, and it's like, it's like, you know, I mean I don't know. I think, I think we're sometimes evaluating things by the wrong markers.

[00:30:10] JD King: I. And and we gotta get back to just, you know, what does it mean to, you know, let's be, let's be great people that love the people close to us. Well, let's be good fathers, good husbands good, good wives, and let's, let's love Jesus passionately and deeply. And, and you know, that in the long run, that's so much more impactful than whether you have some kind of cultural mark on the world.

[00:30:32] JD King: I mean, I think, you know. Yeah.

[00:30:35] The Missional Life - Dan: , we've been talking the unhealthy part of listening to other than social media, but there are some voices that we should be listening to and we need to discern those, right? In fact, you see that in the story of Gideon, right? , like he's still fearful and God says, Hey, look, if you don't believe me, go down to the camp.

[00:30:50] The Missional Life - Dan: Listen to what they're saying. Right. Right. And all of a sudden, like he's listening to these voices talking about something going on. Mm-hmm. And then you realize, whoa, they're talking about me. They're talking about me. And in a healthy way when we do listen to , the right voices and the right things , like he was emboldened by that.

[00:31:05] The Missional Life - Dan: . And so when we listen to those right voices, those pastoral voices or those life-giving voices , in our lives, then man, they can embolden us to step out into obedience and step out into the destiny that God has for us. And so as listeners, as many of us step into those those, those callings, and we try to be obedient to what God is saying.

[00:31:27] The Missional Life - Dan: Oftentimes we encounter some kind of trouble. Right? Oftentimes. Yeah. And so I'm just wondering like how do you discern, and I don't know, Gideon has some different ways of doing that too, but how do you discern between a test from God? Is this just simple life? Is this the enemy? Is this my own shortcomings?

[00:31:42] The Missional Life - Dan: Yeah. How do you discern those things , and what have you learned from studying the life of Gideon?

[00:31:46] JD King: Wow. Wow. What a big question there, Dan. You know, that's, that's not like a small question or anything. Well, I, I think that we have to be careful that we don't always know everything as well as we do.

[00:31:58] JD King: I mean, we don't always perceive what God's up to or what he is not up to. I mean, I mean, I love that story in the Bible where the woman comes up to Jesus and grabs the hem of his garment and he says, who touched me? And I think it's one of the most remarkable verses in all the Bible, because when I read the.

[00:32:12] JD King: Other passages of the New Testament. I get the idea that often Jesus knew the kinds of things that was gonna happen, God the father had revealed to him maybe the sorts of things that would unfold that day. Well, here's an example where I guess Jesus didn't know that this was gonna happen, like this was a surprise to who touched me.

[00:32:29] JD King: And and, and that's a profound idea to me. Like, you know, that, that if Jesus might not have known that this was gonna happen, maybe something might happen to me that I don't know. And so I, so I think there has to be a measure of humility. I mean, we have to process things. Well, I mean, I. You know, what's going on in front of us, and you know, these ideas we do, we should listen to other voices.

[00:32:48] JD King: We should find godly people who are trying to share truth and encourage and, and you know, I I, you know, I'm making these comments earlier. You know, I, I don't wanna sound like all content creators are, are, are, are horrible people that aren't, you know, I mean, there's a lot of good ones out there, truthfully.

[00:33:03] JD King: It's just, you know, but, but I think that there's a power in processing, listening praying. I mean, I think we ought to evaluate the fruit of things. What is, what is this doing? Is this producing faithfulness, devotion? Is this causing me to love Jesus more? I mean, or is it, or is it, you know, and, and you know, God allows things sometimes, you know, I mean, life comes at us.

[00:33:27] JD King: I mean, I. Not everything's gonna always be perfect. I mean, you know, I've gone through some difficult things. I don't know that God's ne necessarily the author of those things, but I do know that he allows them and he will use all that comes before us to teach us, to train us, to equip us. And we certainly should.

[00:33:44] JD King: Don't, don't ever let a problem go to waste in your life. You know, you wanna, you want to get the full blessing, and that sounds strange, but. If there's a problem coming your way, like there's something to learn, it can become a point of pushing off or catalyst for you. I mean, don't waste the crisis if you will.

[00:34:02] JD King: Like let it teach you something, train something and you cause you to persevere to get stronger to, to, to whatever it might be. But I don't know that we always know sometimes God's allowing some things more. Sometimes it's just a tragedy. But I think ultimately the responses should always be the same.

[00:34:19] JD King: We're responding, you know, by his word, we're responding to what is the right thing to do, the honorable thing that we wanna grow. We wanna love people, we wanna serve, we wanna prioritize beauty and honor and the goodness of the gospel. We wanna, and you know what when we do wrong, we should admit it.

[00:34:37] JD King: You know, when we make a mistake, when you make a mess, clean it up. And sometimes the problems come up in our life 'cause we created a, a, a real crisis, a problem. And you know, Paul talks about in the Bible not to give the devil a foothold. And I kinda interpret that to say as, Hey, those gaping holes in your life, you probably ought to fill those in.

[00:34:54] JD King: Right? I mean, don't give the devil a spot to kind of come in and. You know, pull in into your life in some way. I mean, I think we all have gaping holes in our lives. I mean, maybe our parents did it to us. Maybe we did it to ourselves. And, you know, and, and we're gonna probably, you know, if you have these gaping holes in your life, it's a good chance.

[00:35:11] JD King: I mean, I. Something, you know, unideal is gonna happen in your life. 'cause those gaping holes invite trouble. I, I was talking with a guy one time and he, he was, he was talking about one of his friends had had this trash all over his house and he said, and they couldn't believe it. Rats are running all around his house.

[00:35:27] JD King: I said, sure they were. 'cause there's trash all over his house. If you throw the trash out everywhere, you never deal with the trash. The rats are gonna come and eat. And, and so like, you know, we gotta clean up and, you know, and, but sometimes we didn't do it. There's the messes, there's the problems. And it's the consequence of maybe the things that we've not dealt with or we've not you know, that those holes, those pain, I mean, I'm telling you right now, if somebody has a hurt or a pain or you've been neglected or you've been abused, those are awful things.

[00:35:53] JD King: But you need to process that. You need to do something about it. You need to give that to the Lord and let him begin to fill in those holes. And, but sometimes God does allow, you know, it talks about in Israel how God took Israel the long way. You know, out of, out of Egypt. And it said, because they were not quite ready to battle all the nations that they would face.

[00:36:12] JD King: That's my paraphrase of what the Bible says. And none of us like to go the long way. Mm-hmm. It's like, come on, God, give, you know, I want the 40 day trip, not the 40 year trip, you know? But sometimes God has to take us in a long way, not because that's his preference, because that's where we are. You know, and I also love, there's another story that I love where Paul was trying to figure out the next thing he was gonna do, and I'm paraphrasing it here, but him and one of his other colleagues would try to take off on this missionary journey.

[00:36:39] JD King: And then they, you know, they get stopped the first place they go, and then they get, they go to the next place and they get stopped. So finally he prays and he gets this vision. The, you know, the man of Macedonia, you know, the scripture. So then finally he goes, okay, I gotta go to Macedonia now. But like, you know, he, he, he knew that after, after he hit two roadblocks.

[00:36:57] JD King: And then finally, you know, in prayer, he finally figured out this is, I mean, like, so sometimes we're gonna go through one or two or three roadblocks before we figure out this is the thing God's trying to do. And we have to be willing to walk through the process that that entails, which is sometimes painful and inconvenient, but it's in the process that, you know, if we keep praying, keep listening, keep responding, that God will show us what we need to do and who we need to be.

[00:37:22] JD King: And I do believe we'll have answers and be able to find the good way to go.

[00:37:26] Hmm. Wow.

[00:37:28] The Missional Life - Dan: So in this new book, mighty like Gideon, you researched it extensively,

[00:37:34] The Missional Life - Dan: I like to say you probably spent a lot of time with Gideon, right? Yeah, for sure. You probably sat with Gideon. Yeah, for sure. For, for quite some time.

[00:37:40] The Missional Life - Dan: What were a couple of the things that stood out to you that you were just most surprised that like, wow, I never really caught that before God. , that's so amazing. , what stuck out to you as you were researching and spending that time with Gideon, and then what was one of the biggest things that God did , in you and in your life?

[00:37:56] The Missional Life - Dan: Through studying the life of Gideon. Mm-hmm.

[00:37:59] JD King: Well, that's another great question, Dan. Thanks. Thanks. You know, you, you, you, you asked me these things. I have to, I really think here at I, I think that, I think that seeing Gideon, I think I saw Gideon's weaknesses a lot more. Like, I mean, you know, you're reading the account.

[00:38:15] JD King: He goes up, you know, this angel shows up in the wine press here and. And you know, and, and the angel's starting to say, you know, the word of the Lord to him, Hey, you know, mighty warrior, God's gonna do this. And, and he's like, almost mocking this angel. And he's like, he's like, well, if God's, you know, where, where were all of God's miracles up to this time.

[00:38:32] JD King: He says some line like that. I. And of course he realizes, I don't know, somewhere in this interchange that, whoa, hold on a minute. This is an angel of the Lord, and I probably shouldn't have been talking this way to a messenger from God. You know? So he, like, he goes and gets an offering. I mean, it's like Gideon Gideon's kind of an idiot sometimes.

[00:38:50] JD King: But then like he, he keeps sort of pivoting and learning. I, so I think, I think that, I mean, I hate, I hate to word it that way, but that's. It's like, that's me. Like, I, like, I'm an idiot too. Like God's trying to talk to me about stuff and you know, do this, you know, change your attitude, change how you respond to your wife.

[00:39:06] JD King: Don't talk this way to your kids. And like, and I, I'm just, you know, and then, and then like. You know, so, so I think the story of Gideon, like it's easy to, to read the part, you know, when he's there with the, the 300 guys and they got their torches out and they're blowing the shofars and God sends this panic on the Midianites and you know, the Midianites, you know, take on each other and it basically ends the threat.

[00:39:28] JD King: You know, what a great story, great moment, great resolution, but we don't read all the parts leading up to that, that, you know, before he was really ready to just hold up a torch and just shout and blow these horns. And here they're, they're gonna fight tens of thousands of Midianites with, with no no weapons.

[00:39:45] JD King: You know, and what a brave co, you know, courageous spot. Like, but like, that didn't happen like overnight. I. He was kind of really dragging his feet. He's like, you know, he's like putting out wool on the ground. Like, Hey God, why don't you make this wool wet and make the ground dry now? Okay, how about we flip it around?

[00:40:01] JD King: Now let's make the, you know, the, the, the, the ground dry and the, you know, I mean like, you know, the other way around. And like, you know, and God's like, no, I already told you this. You already know. He's dragging his feet. Not sure about all this stuff, but you know, God keeps working with him. And so I think, you know, I, I think sometimes we want everything to be instantaneous.

[00:40:19] JD King: We like those big altar call moments and I like those too. Obviously. I. But most of the time our life isn't changed in the singular one alter call moment. It's in choices. It's sometimes even about responding rightly, maybe after we did not respond rightly

[00:40:34] and mm-hmm.

[00:40:35] JD King: And so, so the story of Gideon, you know, I think May, may maybe that we, it Gideon was really, truly weaker and more foolish than I realized, and the fact that he finally truly became a hero.

[00:40:47] JD King: It's very inspiring to me. 'cause I think maybe I could become one too. Maybe now, you know? So, so, so what, what was that last part of your question again? Forgive me here as I'm rambling too long here, but you, you, you know, you asked me what did I learned from Gideon, then you, and then just what

[00:41:01] The Missional Life - Dan: was

[00:41:01] JD King: surprising

[00:41:02] The Missional Life - Dan: just in your own life too, what you, what was, what was most surprising and what was it that you applied to your own life, or what did God speak to your own life?

[00:41:08] The Missional Life - Dan: Yeah. I think you, yeah, hit some of it, but Sure.

[00:41:11] JD King: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I, I, I think I did kind of answer it in the sense that, you know, I think Gideon's an, an approachable model for all of us. I mean, you know, sometimes we read about the apostles or whatever, like, wow, they did all these great things, you know? I mean, I don't know.

[00:41:23] JD King: I may find a you know, some commonalities with Peter who always, you know, opened his big mouth and caused all kinds of trouble. But sometimes you read about all these guys, you're like, wow, I could never be that great. And. You know, but Gideon, you know, through most of the story wasn't that great, you know, and, but you know, God used him and, and you know, I think that there, you know, I think the big thing for me is I think, you know, I've had, I've had, you know, like all of us, you know, you have had setbacks and I've dealt with, my daughter has a, a.

[00:41:47] JD King: Autoimmune disease. You know, that's kind of been disappointing. And, you know, I had, I had a season where I was really doing a lot of stuff and I was traveling and ministering a lot, having a time in my life, and some of that kind of dried up and some different things happened, and I was a little bit mad at God about that for a little bit.

[00:42:02] JD King: Like, why, why did that happen? Why did these things? And, and the lord's like, you know, you need to get your head on straight. You like, you're, you're missing this, you know, it's not. Your status or this or that or, or it's not. Everything's not always gonna work out perfectly, but you know, you've gotta regroup.

[00:42:16] JD King: You gotta re-envision. And most importantly, if God's called you to do and be something, then you need to go ahead and press into that, even if you don't see all the fruit of it. You know, he told Gideon, be a mighty warrior. Well, it's okay. It's time to be a warrior. It's time to stand up. It's time to rise up.

[00:42:32] JD King: And I think God's calling, many of us that are watching this right now and listening. He's calling us the different things. I mean, it may not look like what mine is exactly, but he's calling us to rise up into our destiny to to become something. And if God's saying it, we just need to do it. And it doesn't really matter how much it costs, it doesn't matter how painful it might look.

[00:42:51] JD King: It doesn't even matter if we failed or sidestep that issue. We've gotta get back on the pathway. We've gotta get that boldness. We've gotta begin to envision the kinds of things that God is saying. So for me, that's I think the big thing. You know, Gideon. You know, he messed up quite a bit, but he got back on the pathway, kept going and he truly became a warrior and I wanna become a warrior for Jesus too.

[00:43:16] The Missional Life - Dan: Yeah. Just was visualizing this. Of course Gideon , gets this word. He is trying to step in. He is obeying, and then all of a sudden his army goes from. Tens of thousands to 300, and I can just picture his face like, ah, like, yeah. Right. 300, 300, right. Yeah. Yeah. And anyways, so that's kind of what God did in your life and he spoke to you.

[00:43:40] The Missional Life - Dan: What do you most hope that the reader takes away from this book?

[00:43:44] JD King: Yeah, well appreciate that question. I mean, I think you're kind of getting, getting the heart of it too. I mean, I think, I think we all. Have the opportunity to be world changers. Mm. I mean, I know this, it sounds like I'm just using religious rhetoric or I'm just, you know, but I, you know, I mean, I guess I'm selling a book, but other than that, I got nothing else.

[00:44:04] JD King: I'm selling. I just, I want people to step into their destiny. You know? I want, I want, you know, I think, you know, like, like. This is an amazing time. I think we could step into some things. I mean, there's a lot of problems and weaknesses and, you know, we, we have our own version of the Midianites, you know, coming down on our nation.

[00:44:19] JD King: Wicked things. I mean, we can talk about all the problems, social problems, economic problems. We could give names to 'em. But, but everybody watching this and listening, they know, they know the names. We could talk about it. All the politic issues, the social issues, the, the, the, the, you know, all that, all that, the cultural issues.

[00:44:36] JD King: And some of them really are threatening our kids. They're really threatening our future. They might, you know, those are real problems, but I think we're kind of waiting around on somebody else to be the hero we're waiting on. I mean, worse yet, sometimes we're waiting on the politician to be the hero for us to save the day.

[00:44:51] JD King: But what if that's not who's gonna save us? What if? What if it's Jesus, but Jesus causing us to be? In a sense, our own heroes. I mean, what ha what would, what would it look like for all of us? You know, the people listening to this, you know, rising into our destiny. And I do believe we can do more. You know, if you'd have told me 10 years ago that I would have a book, you know, that I co-wrote that's coming out through chosen books, a a division of Baker Book House, you know, like I would said, nah, that's never gonna happen.

[00:45:17] JD King: That'd be so cool if that happened, but that's never gonna happen. Well, here it, it's happened. God opens the door. He causes things to happen. I can tell you crazy stories. Just a few weeks ago, I'm sitting at a, at a lunch table with two of the most prominent charismatic leaders in the US just talking to 'em about God.

[00:45:32] JD King: I mean, I'm invited to the inner chamber. I like, I didn't belong there. You know, I, I, I don't have the status or position to truly be in that spot, but I was invited into a room I didn't belong. It's like God said I did that. You know, I can cause that. And I believe that we got, we got people here watching this and listen to this, that, you know, God wants to invite you to tables you don't belong to.

[00:45:51] JD King: Right. But then you're gonna belong to, 'cause he's gonna change you. He, he is gonna give you a voice. He's gonna give you. Giftings abilities. You know, he's gonna cause some to, you know, be speakers, to be writers, to be musicians, some people to be coaches, and, you know, whatever it might be. All these different things, entrepreneurs, if something's gonna get activated in you and like, you need to just rise up in that, rise up in that calling, you know, grab hold of, of what it might mean to get truly embrace the mission of life, to go on mission with God.

[00:46:21] JD King: To truly change the world and become, you know, an image bearer that people are seeing the goodness and glory in God, you know, through you. And I believe this is possible. And I mean, I hope somebody reading Mighty like Gideon will get inspired in that way, that they'll wanna rise into who God's calling them to be.

[00:46:39] JD King: Getting that thirst, getting that hunger for those deeper things of God. I believe it's, it's truly possible for all of us to have this, and I think sometimes we're forgetting that. But I believe it. I believe it's right here waiting for us.

[00:46:54] The Missional Life - Dan: Oh, I was thinking of that scripture where you were saying, , I didn't belong.

[00:46:58] The Missional Life - Dan: But God says, your gift will make way for you. It'll bring you before great man. And I just think that's right. That when we are obedient, when we use the gifts that he's equipped us to use, then mm-hmm. The sky's the limit because Guy can do amazing things and I think.

[00:47:13] The Missional Life - Dan: What's important to to remember as well is that Gideon was an Old Testament believer. We have the, we are in the New Testament, we're the new covenant. And you know, God says like he put his spirit in us. He says, I didn't give you a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. And so he's put himself in us.

[00:47:29] The Missional Life - Dan: And so if Gideon can go out there with an army of 300 and obey him and take on numerous foes and be successful and overcome, we can. With the power of Jesus, with the power of the Holy Spirit in us, can, can do much more. And that's what God Yes has, has told us we would do. He Jesus said, Hey, look like you, like you're gonna do more than this.

[00:47:50] The Missional Life - Dan: And we have to step out in faith and obey the Lord. Mm-hmm. And just, just disregard the fear and step into faith. And so, just wanna ask you one other question. You know, we've been kind of kicking around this idea of social media and we've been Yeah. Talking about Gideon. So I'm just wondering. You know, if, if Gideon had a social media account, what do you think his bio, what do you think his bio would say?

[00:48:14] The Missional Life - Dan: Giddy? What

[00:48:15] JD King: question? That's the least. That's, that's not the question I expected to hear today. I don't know. I mean, at first he'd probably say, what is God doing with me? I don't know. I mean I think I think he would say, you know ultimately that line, he says, you know, it's. You know, basically I'm, I'm paraphrasing it, you know, the, you know, the Soar, the Lord, and for Gideon, I think that would be his ultimate line.

[00:48:38] JD King: Like, like, like he was. There came a, he, he finally embraced his identity. Like, like, like obviously the Lord's first and foremost in this, you know, it's the sword for the Lord, you know, we're gonna fight for the Lord, but Gideon and for Gideon. But like, God inspired him to say that like, you know, he became the leader.

[00:48:53] JD King: He became a voice. You know, his, his voice was not the most important one, but he became a part of the story and he wasn't afraid to become the leader. And I think that that's a that's probably what I would see. You know, he would, he would have that line there. That wouldn't be what he wrote at first.

[00:49:08] JD King: But as he finally got ready to achieve his destiny, that would be with the tagline on his social media page. 'cause like, like, you know, we're gonna do this for God. But you know what, I'm not afraid to step out front and say, you know what? I'm ready to mobilize for this cause. And, and I, and I wanna drive home again, like with you guys and others.

[00:49:23] JD King: I mean, there are godly people that have a voice and have a. You know, a significant thing to share and speak, get it had in his day, you know, you guys have it in your day and others, you know, on a lesser level, I think I have that too. This is what this book's about. I feel like people have things to say to maybe inspire people to press forward in God, and we certainly wanna celebrate that and, and welcome that when we see somebody God's using, that's something we should think is wonderful.

[00:49:49] The Missional Life - Amanda: Yeah, absolutely. That's actually an analogy I was sharing with our daughter, that, , today we have the internet. To share so much, , we can mm-hmm. Promote books and, , back when Jesus, , died and rose again, they were under this horrible ruling with the Roman Empire. Mm-hmm. But in the meantime, , what was the saying, all roads lead to Rome, you know?

[00:50:11] The Missional Life - Amanda: Right. Rome actually unintentionally provided a way for the gospel to go out by preparing the roads. And so, mm-hmm. You know, if there is things that God has put on your heart, you know, listeners seek him, is there a way that he wants you to share it through writing, speaking, , something on social media.

[00:50:30] The Missional Life - Amanda: Right. And, , just be obedient, as you said earlier in the, in this episode, , just being obedient and how God has called you to

[00:50:39] The Missional Life - Dan: Amen. So the new book. Mighty like Gideon. Where can our listeners find it and how can our listeners connect with Ji?

[00:50:48] JD King: Well, thanks for asking the easiest way for them to get the book.

[00:50:51] JD King: And if they get it here, they can also get like a, a workbook and some other stuff inexpensively, only a dollar more. But you could go to our landing page mighty like gideon.com. It's just the name of the book with the.com at the end of it. But that's, that's a place where you can find out about the book and, and some other resources.

[00:51:09] JD King: You get some downloads with purchasing it that way. Obviously the book's also available on Amazon and all the other retailers, but it'd be cool if you got it from me. You can also reach out to me. I have a website jd king.net. I have my blog on there, and some other books are on there. And, and you can find my email on there if somebody wanted to email me.

[00:51:28] JD King: I love to hear from people, you know, if you got a question or comment or whatever, you know, I love to hear that. And, but jd king.net is a great place to find me. And of course I'm on Facebook and stuff. You wanna go search around and look, I, I, I, I'd love to meet you that way too.

[00:51:43] The Missional Life - Dan: Amen. Listeners, we'll have those in the show notes for you.

[00:51:46] The Missional Life - Dan: Jd, what an honor to have you on the show. We're so encouraged and just so thankful that you are using your gift , of writing , and teaching to bring , the biblical truths of Gideon into our lives today and just how we can apply those things , and be mighty like Gideon. So if we just speak blessing over you and over this new book, thank you for being on the show.

[00:52:07] The Missional Life - Dan: Thank you.

[00:52:09] Amen.